The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries announced on Thursday that it has agreed, along with its non-member allies, to extend its oil production-cut agreement to the end of 2018. At a press conference in Vienna, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the decision was “unanimous.” He also said that supply from countries who do not participate in the deal “remains a question mark.” OPEC members and some non-member oil producers, led by Russia, pledged late last year to reduce their crude output by roughly 1.8 million barrels a day from October 2016 levels in an effort to drawdown a global stock overhang and rebalance supply and demand. The deal was put into effect in January and was set to expire in March 2018, so the decision Thursday lengthens the cuts by another nine months. Oil prices continued to trade mostly lower after the news, with January West Texas Intermediate crude down 23 cents, or 0.4%, at $57.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and February Brent crude down 16 cents, or 0.3%, at $62.36 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. In volatile trading ahead of the contract’s expiration at the day’s settlement, January Brent crude rose 29 cents, or 0.5%, to $63.40.
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